Doubly delicious chocolate cookies

Five years ago, we hosted 10 staff members of our website, The Kitchn, for a weekend retreat in the country, and I was in charge of the cooking.

We were hungry worker bees, stretching our brains all day, decoding the secrets of site design, traffic analytics and reader satisfaction. I did try to push healthy snacks on my co-workers, but the dark chocolate walnut cookies won for best snack.

Digging back into the archives, I found the post about these cookies with one of the worst food photographs I ever made. Five years on, they are still one of my favorite tea-time snacks.

I want to emphasize what a difference it makes to use high-quality cocoa, bittersweet chocolate chips or pieces, and fresh nuts in this recipe. Ingredient quality and freshness always make a difference, but in this case, with such intense flavors, it is even more the case. Always give walnuts a sniff before using them; they can go rancid quickly if not stored properly, even in the grocery store.

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